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During the second round of voting in the presidential elections, Argentina elected Mauricio Macri as its new president. The bitcoin community is discussing how Macri’s economic program would affect the future of bitcoin.

"The reinvented millionaire" – this is how the leading Spanish newspaper El País labelled Mauricio Macri. The question for the Bitcoin community is whether Macri will in turn reinvent the future of digital currencies in Argentina.

On the one hand, Macri is known to have supported, in his capacity of mayor of Buenos Aires, the First Latin American Forum on Virtual Currencies, which took place in both Argentina and Brazil in July and gathered representatives of JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Santander, Itáu, Cielo, the International Finance Corporation, the World Bank, Deloitte and the Central Banks of Argentina, Brazil and Chile.

On the other hand, voices such as Omar Bessa from Cointelegraph have expressed concerns with the implications of Macri’s expected economic measures against the rising inflation and economic crisis. Bessa, for instance, considers how the possible abolishment of the “clamp” on the dollar would lead to normalisation of the peso/dollar exchange rate, thus making operations in cryptocurrency less demanded.

Indeed, Macri has sent a clear message to investors by appointing two renowned economists as ministers, namely Alfonso Prat-Gay, former executive of JPMorgan and President of the Central Bank of Argentina from 2002 to 2004, as Minister of Revenue and Finance, and Rogelio Frigerio as Minister of the Interior. As Coinfox commented earlier, due to economic instability, the volatility of national currency, and general mistrust in the bank system, Argentina has been seen as a bitcoin heaven. What makes cryptocurrency even more attractive for the Argentinians is the percentage of the unbanked population, which is estimated at over 50%. Nevertheless, the number of bitcoin users in the country is relatively small and most of them only need it to dollarise their savings.

While it is too early to assess how the prospective economic policies of the president elect Macri will affect the use of Bitcoin in Argentina, it is clear that the Bitcoin community cannot wait to find out. Nel Nelruk Cardozo and Alpha Bitcoin have actually asked the president elect directly on Twitter: “@mauriciomacri What is your opinion of #bitcoin?” Still waiting for the reply.

 

 Diana Bogdan